OCC Reports Mortgage Performance Improves in First Quarter of 2016

Performance of first-lien mortgages improved during the first quarter of 2016 compared with a year earlier, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) quarterly report on mortgages.

The OCC Mortgage Metrics Report, First Quarter 2016, showed 94.9 percent of mortgages included in the report were current and performing at the end of the quarter, compared with 94.2 percent a year earlier.

The report also showed that foreclosure activity has declined. Reporting servicers initiated 58,921 new foreclosures during the first quarter of 2016, a 29.1 percent decrease from a year earlier.

As first-lien mortgage performance improves, the need for other loss mitigation actions declines. Servicers implemented 34,481 mortgage modifications in the first quarter of 2016. Eighty-seven percent of the modifications reduced borrowers’ monthly payments.

The first-lien mortgages included in the OCC’s quarterly report comprise 38 percent of all residential mortgages outstanding in the United States or about 21.1 million loans totaling $3.6 trillion in principal balances. This report provides information on their performance through March 31, 2016, and can be downloaded from the OCC’s website,www.occ.gov.

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